Gennady Ladyzhensky

Gennady Ladyzhensky was born in Kologriv, a small town in the Kostroma Oblast, in 1852. His father was a parish clerk and his mother was a housewife. He showed an early interest in art and took private lessons from a local painter. He later moved to St. Petersburg and studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts under Ilya Repin, who became his mentor and friend. He also learned sculpture and etching from other teachers. He specialized in landscape painting and was influenced by the works of Ivan Shishkin and Ivan Kramskoi. He traveled extensively in Russia and abroad, creating sketches and paintings of various places and scenes. He exhibited his works in many exhibitions and received several awards and honors, including the Order of Saint Stanislaus from Tsar Alexander III. He became a member of the Union of Russian Artists and the World of Art group. He also taught drawing at the Odessa Academy of Fine Arts and had many famous students, such as Boris Anisfeld, Pyotr Nilus and Oleksii Shovkunenko. He married Julia Proshinskaya, but they had no children. He suffered from poor health and became paralyzed in 1914. He retired to his hometown and devoted himself to collecting art and other items. He planned to create a museum in Kologriv, but his project was interrupted by the First World War and the Russian Revolution. He died in 1916 and was buried in his town. His paintings and collection are now displayed in the Kologriv Museum, which was established in 1918. He is regarded as one of the most original and popular Russian painters of the late 19th and early 20th century.